Dartmouth College Officially Puts New, Tougher Sexual Assault Policies and Penalties Into Effect
ByFacing pressure to toughen up on campus sexual assault, Dartmouth College revised its policy to punish the offense with automatic expulsion.
According to the Huffington Post, the New Hampshire Ivy League school passed the new policy proposal Thursday. Any student found responsible of sexual assault or rape face a mandatory expulsion and the school will also appoint an individual investigator to examine the complaints.
Robert Donin, Dartmouth's general counsel, told the HP the school decided to factor in a single investigator into the equation to make reporting simpler and to hasten the whole process.
"As noted in the Unified Disciplinary Procedures, this policy applies to the investigation and resolution of complaints of: sexual assault; aiding, abetting, or inciting sexual assault; and retaliation for reporting or participating in an investigation of sexual assault," the school said in an announcement. "Sexual and gender-based harassment not involving physical assault - as well as domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking - will be addressed in the generally applicable standards of conduct and disciplinary procedures for undergraduate students and graduate and professional students."
In April, Dartmouth president Phil Hanlon said in a speech that the school needed to do better to handle issues involving sexual misconduct, binge drinking and hazing in the Greek system. Hanlon's announcement came about a month after the school administration officially proposed the new policy, the HP previously reported.
Dartmouth is one of more than 60 schools across the nation under federal investigation for complaints of mishandling reports of sexual assault.
President Obama reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act last year and with it updated policy requirements. One of those requirements calls for schools to clearly define penalties facing students found responsible of sexual misconduct.
"The actions I have detailed are antithetical to everything that we stand for and hope for our students to be," Hanlon said in an address in April. "There is a grave disconnect between our culture in the classroom and the behaviors outside of it - behaviors which too often seek not to elevate the human spirit, but debase it."